Glow Police

A few years back I was finally able to pick up a copy of the first Police & Thieves 7 inch with the record release cover. I've got a solid P&T collection, so it made me very happy to get my hands on that special cover, and at only $4 it was a steal. The record release cover was made with glow in the dark ink, and when I recieved my copy, I was a bit disappointed to discover that it had lost its glow. At the time, Marcus joked that since it didn't glow, it was a good excuse to buy another one. Seemed like good advice, and here we are three years later with my second copy.

The first copy of the record release cover that I bought was printed with yellow ink, and when a Discogs seller recently listed a copy with a "nice greenish fade on the screen print", I was intrigued.

I sent a message to the seller to ask for photos so that I could verify that the ink color was different from my current copy. It was a slight pain in the ass when he then asked for me to send him a dollar for the trouble of sending the photo, and if I did end up buying the record, he would refund me the amount. Weird. I'd never encountered that before. The seller ended up being the drummer for Give, and previously Desperate Measures, and apparently was tired of sending photos to potential buyers that never followed through. Once I saw the photos, I obviously had to buy it and add another copy of this to the collection.

This one definitely glows in the dark.

I had to pull out my other record release cover for this 7 inch. There are obviously different colors of ink used here. There is a photo of one on Discogs that appears to have black ink for the text on the cover. Am I going to need that one too?

Number 25 and 16, and it is interesting to see the different shades of yellow for the colored vinyl. The one with the yellow cover is a more pale shade of yellow, which is a nice touch and I wonder if it was intentional.

Glow In The Dark Thieves

My collection for Police & Thieves is damn strong. Colored vinyl and test pressings...yeah, I have them. There may be only one or two records that I'm missing, and the biggest hole was the record release pressing for the first 7 inch. When I saw one pop up on Discogs for four dollars, I didn't hesitate to finally grab a copy.

The record release pressing of this 7 inch comes with a special cover that was made with glow in the dark ink. The bright yellow ink on the white stock makes it a bit hard on the eyes, and I'm assuming that there is shelf life for this ink because this copy doesn't seem to glow in the dark anymore.

It has been a while since I've listened to Police & Thieves, and picking up this 7 inch was a nice reminder of how much I really love this band.

Number 16 out of only 50 made for the record release. Damn, with all those leading zeros, you'd think there were hundreds of thousands pressed. Also, my copy seems to be missing the magnifying glass that I'm going to need to read that lyric sheet.

P&T Test Pressings

I was thinking about posting up "just another record" for my first post of 2014, and then I saw what Chris put up on his blog, Unwavering Spirit. Damn. I'm not going to be able to complete with him on this, but it did make me rethink how I wanted to start the blog off for 2014.

Back in May of last year, Carlos from Police & Thieves dropped me a line, letting me know that the band was looking to record some new songs over the summer, and to help fund it, he was selling a bunch of records from his collection. I told him that if he had some P&T rarities, then I would definitely be interested. By June, we had worked out the details on what he was able to dig up, and I sent the payment over to him for what I could afford at the moment. There were a few false starts and delays in getting the records out, but I was in no rush, and I knew the dude was good for it. By the time we were saying goodbye to Summer, I finally had my records in hand.

First up, we have a test pressing of the Fracturing 12 inch that Police & Thieves did a couple years ago. It looks similar to the record release pressing that P&T did, except the test cover is on green cardstock instead of white. Such a great record, and a great band...plus, anytime you get a chance to grab a Youngblood test, you've got to take it.

One of the reasons for the delay in getting these records out to me was that Carlos was waiting on the test press covers from Youngblood. Yeah, I'm cool with waiting for stuff like this.

The other test that Carlos had available, was for the split 7 inch that Police & Thieves did with Remission. This one was put out on Amendment records, and comes in a nice envelope-type sleeve. The packaging looks great for this one.

Stamped labels and numbered out of 20. I've got number 7.

After everything was said and done, and I had these two tests in my hand, I was starting to feel the pinch of some reckless record spending. I knew that it was time to reign myself back and in and chill for a little while. Then Carlos lets me know that he has a third test press available if I want it. I was torn, and I dragged my feet on it for a month or so, but in the end, I couldn't pass it up.

This time around we have a test press for the Amor Y Guerra 7 inch that Police & Thieves released back in 2008 through Youngblood. Just a simple red sleeve with a glittery silver "P&T" painted in the corner. Nice.

The catalog number for this is YB25, so I'm not sure if the number on the label means that this is number 7 from the pressing, or what. Either way, I'll take it!

Week one of 2014 and my test press count is at three. I wonder if I'll be able to keep up this pace for the year.

Youngblood: Part 2 - Give and Police & Thieves

The second half of Youngblood's epic four record pre-order.

Just when I was starting to fall in love with Give, Youngblood posted pre-orders for the Flower Head 7 inch. Of course this was back in December, so I had to wait nearly 6 months to finally hear these songs. Yeah, I could have downloaded them for free on their bandcamp page, but I preferred to wait until I had the actual record. Who knew it was going to take so long?

120 on clear vinyl, 120 on orange, and 378 pressed on black.

Yes, I know that this collection is far from complete, but after finally adding the Flower Head 7 inch, I wanted to see all the vinyl laid out to appreciate the continuity of the cover designs.

While I picked up the record release/Youngblood Showcase pressing of the new Police & Thieves record back in December, I was looking forward to picking up the regular pressing as well. Seven great songs, capturing that DC/early Dag Nasty vibe. Such a great record.

195 pressed on white vinyl.

150 pressed on green.

My Police & Thieves collection has been slowly growing, and with the addition of the Fracturing album, I figured it was time to get a picture of my accomplishments.

Original Police & Thieves

Piece by piece, my Police & Thieves collection is slowly growing.

Three years ago, I picked up my first copy of the Police & Thieves debut 7 inch through a Youngblood package deal. There were a couple of different pressings, and the one included in the Youngblood package was with People's Soldier cover. Six years after it's initial release, I'm finally adding the original cover to my collection.

Strangely enough, the yellow vinyl is the most common pressing. 800 on yellow, and 200 on black. The quest continues...

Tour 7 Inch Split

Back in September, Remission and Police & Thieves got together and did tours on the East and West coast to promote their new split 7 inch on Amendment Records. What a perfect pairing for these two amazing Hardcore bands.

Remission travelling up from South America to tour the States was a special occasion, and one that was worthy of a limited tour cover for their new split 7 inch.

Limited to 100. Upon first glance, it looks like they were supposed to be hand numbered, but closer inspection show there was probably an error with the printer and all the cover were created with "1/100" on the back. To fix the error, the band just put a sticker over the number 1. Still, I wish they were numbered.

The 7 inch includes the tour flyer on the back of the lyric sheet. Nice touch. As you can see, the closest they came to me was New York, and I was not going to be able to make that trip. It was too bad that I missed them, but thankfully Amendment Records put up the leftovers in their webstore, and I was able to grab one.

While I was shopping with Amendment Records, I also picked up the oddball pressing of Remission's LP. What we have here is the second pressing of the album on clear vinyl from Amendment, combined with the Euro press cover from Assault Records. This is what happens with a record label has leftover vinyl with no covers for them. They pull together whatever they can.

To differentiate this special pressing, Amendment stamped the Remission logo on the inside of the album cover.

Police & Thieves : Youngblood & REACT!

I'm most appreciative of when situations like this happen. Despite not making it out to either the REACT! or the Youngblood Showcase, I was still able to buy a copy of both Police & Thieves special pressings for these events.

First up is the record release pressing of the new Police & Thieves album, Fracturing. Four of these seven songs showed up on the Blizzard Sessions '10 tape from last year, but they get a proper mastering for this release. P&T are from D.C. and they nail that D.C. Hardcore sound from the mid-80's Dischord bands. Holy shit, this record is so good.

The record release pressing comes with a special cover and is limited to 55. Along with the white vinyl, I really like the way this looks.

Number 5 of 55.

For the REACT! Showcase, Police & Thieves did a limited special cover for their Amor Y Guerra LP on Salad Days Records.

"REACT SHOWCASE '11" was spray painted on the front cover for the LP. It is kind of hard to see with the gray on gray, and I think it might have looked better if it was positioned more on the pink.

Limited to only 20, I feel extremely lucky to have a copy of this.

I can't say enough good things about this band. Thanks for the records Carlos. Looking forward to the regular press of Fracturing from Youngblood.

Youngblood 2008

Back in early 2008, Youngblood Records put up pre-orders for 7 inches from both Police & Thieves and Coptic Times. I'd never heard of either band, and money was tight, so I skipped ordering immediately. As typical for Youngblood, the records turned out to be great, and I regretted not picking them up initially. That just means that I've had to pick up the pieces here and there over the past few years. When I found the last pieces I needed for these records in an eBay store for $6.00 each, I quickly grabbed them.

The more I listen to Police & Thieves, the more I fall in love with these songs. 300 pressed on green vinyl.

The Coptic Times 7 inch that I needed was on clear vinyl.

I'm not sure what the pressing info is for the Coptic Times record. Sean Youngblood needs to update the label's discography page!

The eBay store also had a copy of the first Police & Thieves 7 inch that I was also missing.

300 were made of the first Police & Thieves 7 inch with "The People's Soldier" cover. Some are on gold vinyl...some are on black vinyl. I'm not sure of the numbers for each, but I've now got both of them.

Police & Thieves / Remission split

Remission released a new 7 inch earlier this year on REACT!, Police & Thieves are supposed to have a new record out later this year on Youngblood, and between those two releases, Amendment Records gives a split 7 inch with both bands.

I love both of these bands, so ordering all three pressings of the new 7 inch made sense to me. As a bonus, Amendment threw in a bonus DVD that contains a live Remission show. Quality.

Remission fucking rule Hardcore right now. Holy shit, this band can not do wrong. Following up their amazing Winds of Promise 7 inch, these two songs follow the same path. I know that I've always compared them to One Step Ahead and Verbal Assault, but something about these new songs also remind me of 411. Seriously, it sounds like Dan O is going to jump in and sing a verse of Seeded. I can not get enough from this band right now.

I've been lucky enough to catch Police & Thieves live a couple of times over the past year. When I first heard their Amor Y Guerra record a couple years ago, I really liked it, but seeing them live and repeated listens of those songs only made me appreciate it more and more. We got a teaser from Youngblood last year with the Blizzard Sessions cassette, but I'm thrilled to get two new songs with this split. Great stuff, that leaves me looking forward to the new record even more.

150 on teal blue, 350 on gray and 500 on black.

Much Love For Youngblood

Youngblood Records doesn't make noise very often, but when they do, it is usually pretty impressive. Their newest release, Sacred Love's self-titled EP, is no exception.

Ev from Mindset switches roles, and moves from vocals to bass, with this new band out of Baltimore. While they cite the early Dischord roster and Bad Brains as influences, there are times during the song Peace of Mind that really remind me of Betrayed. 200 pressed on purple vinyl.

300 pressed on black vinyl.

I do not give a shit about cassettes, and I generally refuse to purchase demos pressed in this terrible format. Fuck that...I'll download it, and if it gets released later on vinyl, I'll pick it up then. Of course I also hate to pass on a new Youngblood release, so I bit the bullet and bought the new Police & Thieves cassette. Man, the new songs sound great, and I can't wait for the new record to drop in 2011. Limited to 100 copies, this cassette was released on Youngblood's imprint label, Youngblood Vaults, and is listed with catalog number 2. Wait. There was another release on Youngblood Vaults? What was number one?

The last thing that Youngblood released with their September pre-orders was the final pressing of When The Lights Go Out from Fired Up. Pressed on purple vinyl and with a special Final Pressing sleeve. I love this record and will proudly proclaim that I own 9 different copies of it.

Number 108 of 110 pressed.